When do we give up on children? Never!
-- A. Duncan

Each of us know or have seen children that the rest of the world has given up on. Maybe they don’t live on the right side of town. Maybe they don’t speak up, speak well, or they speak too much. Maybe their grades aren’t so good and their behavior is even more abhorrent. Maybe they pick fights, threaten other children, and disrespect authority. Maybe their clothes are torn and raggedy, too small, too big, or not clean. Maybe they just don’t look like they want to or can be helped.

On any given day, thousands of children are abused, neglected, and made to feel unimportant and worthless. On most days, these same children enter schools and are expected to produce as effectively as children who don’t experience the same woes. When these children act out or are otherwise unresponsive, they are then thought of and tagged as bad, lazy, and unreachable children. They get separated from other children – possibly in self-contained classrooms with other kids who also have a sundry of personal obstacles; stripped of privileges; and shunned by most every adult they come in contact with – all precursors to the forming of objectionable social skills and subdued confidence and self-esteem. Then, they grow up and become the sunken-eyed lawbreakers we see on the evening news who’ve lived hard lives with few, if any, successes.

Because nobody stopped to help. Or if they did stop, they didn’t stay. They gave up because the layers were too many, the hole was too deep, and the need was too wide. Those children, turned adults, got left behind.

Every child, given sincere encouragement and time, shown love, patience, and kindness, and exposed to useful and consistent models of righteous living, can succeed. By taking a little more time with a struggling child and making him or her feel as though they were the most important kid in the world, that baby’s life can be turned around. It’s not easy. By no means is it easy. And, it’s not quick. And often, your attempts are wrecked because the kid has to return home to an environment that is less than affirming. But each day you try it again and again until finally, one day, the kid returns to you and you only have to repeat 30 times what you had to repeat 60 times the day before. You take the small victories as indication that change is coming and this is no time to give up.

By teaching a boy to stroke a paint canvas with a brush and colors, you may keep him from painting the town with a spray can. By showing a girl how to climb a wall or rappel a mountain, you increase her sense of self and confidence. By not giving up on children, even when they look like they don’t want to try, you help them reach their greatest potential and move the nation toward sustainability.

When do we give up on children? Never!

Sadiqqa © 2007